Friday, September 3, 2010

I'm feeling like an oyster

I finally got a diagnosis today after a return trip to the doctor. I spent the entire evening wide awake and nauseous. He sent me for a CT scan after I mentioned it felt like something trying to get out of me (that's the way I can only visualize the pain, as if something was stuck).

Stuck it is. I have three kidney stones. One from 2003 in my left kidney is now lodged in a little spot by my bladder. It's only 3mm in size but let me tell you if you had a grain of sand wedged in your wee wee you would notice it.

Well, at least it's not cancer!

The doctor gave me Flowmax (yeah, my husband remarked now I can go fishing all day with the guys like in the commercial). It's commonly used to treat enlarged prostates in men (it relaxes the ureter so the stone can pass. I have to take it daily and drink THREE LITRES of liquids per day. I'm queasy just thinking about that. Oh, and I get to strain my urine as well to look for this little pearl. My husband offered up the gold mesh coffee filter to which I said EW and NO thanks! I don't care how many times you run it through the dishwasher....

I learned in all this that I do not tolerate sulfur drugs as I experienced every miserable side effect it offered, including "anorexia" (I have had no desire to eat for days), "nausea," "dizziness," "stomach upset," and "diarrhea."

Yeah. It's great being me.

Oh, and guess what can cause kidney stones? TEA. I guess 4 cups a day for 20 years has finally taken its toll. As Bill would say, time to switch to beer.